Tuesday, 9 July 2013

Ignite Review; Not just a pretty cover.

Penemuel (Pen) fell from grace over a millennium ago, yet there are still times she questions her decision to follow her twin brother, Azael, to Hell. Now that the archangel Michael has returned, threatening Lucifer’s vie for the throne, she begins questioning everything she has always believed.

As Hell prepares for war - spreading a demonic virus and pilfering innocent souls to build an army - the lines separating the worlds blur. Fates erase and the future is left unwritten. Azael is determined that he and his sister will continue to serve as demons together, but for the first time in her life, Pen is not ruled by destiny. She has the freedom of choice.

With choice comes sacrifice, and Pen must decide which side she’s willing to risk everything fighting for: the light, or the dark.

ReviewFallen from
Heaven, Penemuel and her twin brother Azael followed in Lucifer’s steps, and
plead to do his word. At first, Pen and Az were amongst highest demons, having
a part in the taking down of Archangel Michael and corrupted the balance of
Heaven and Hell, ending the raging war between them, for now.Failing in their plan to corrupt the first
man, Adam, Pen and Az were mocked, and slowly slid down in ranks, having to
claw their way back up the Level 3 demons they are now...

On a mission by
their advisor, Gus, they discover two significant things that could tip the
balance and proclaim war, start the apocalypse.

In a
reanimation of a reaped soul, they find out sneaky Lilith has been spreading
the Lilim virus.

Something
that is as impossible as them becoming Angels again.

He was slain and
trapped in hell.

They found Michael.
The Michael.

Only Michael isn’t
the same as he once was, young, shiny and new, this Michael seems like an angel
in training and not the all-powerful Archangel Michael once was.

This Michael
doesn’t remember anything, he knows what happened to him by what the other
Angels had told him, and he has no idea how he got out of hell or that a part
of Lucifer resides in him as in Lucifer and if one was to be destroyed, the
other would in connection.

Pen and Az start
on a chance that could change their ranks, and everything as they know it.

Azael, ordered to
follow Lilith around and track the Lilim virus, to form a calendar of how close
the apocalypse is, as the written future is rewriting itself in Michaels sudden
reappearance and Pen, ordered to influence questioning Michael to fight with
her on Hells side, or eliminate Heavens risqué card. After all, he would be
easy to kill.

Only, upon doing
her job Pen finds herself questioning everything she’s encased within herself,
because questions didn’t serve her in Heaven and weakness is petulant in Hell.

Ahh! Where to
start? Let me firstly start by saying how much I loved Ignite. For many reasons
really , mostly though, because of the depth of the writing. The heart of the
book, and Pen’s surprising one, that though it’s the usual Heaven Vs Hell
debate, and a star-crossed love story, it’s also a journey and observation of
someone discovering both oneself, and in what was lost.

As of the rivalry
and betrayal of brothers Lucifer and Michael, shall Penemuel and Azael follow.
It was heart-breaking really, that Azael had so much of a hold over Pen, even after
a millennia.

Pen never found
her own two feet, not believing she belonged or fitted the guidelines of
Heaven, she fell with Azael, he never questioned his belonging in Hell.

She never found
her own two feet, she was dependent on Az, both emotionally (Though she’s not
supposed to have any), and powerfully. One cannot outstand the other. For to
kill, you need to reap, and to reap, you need to kill. Pen, the skill to kill
and Az, the power to reap, these twins balance each other. However, whereas Pen
is dependent on Azael for security and familiarity, Azael wasn’t.

He was dependent
on Pen for her power and skill to kill, and Pen let him use her to wilfully
kill and inflict pain that is unnecessary, and cruel, whereas Pen prefers quick
and precise, and underneath it all, despises what she’s doing while on the
outside she pretends to revel in it, and over the years, she even believes she
does enjoy it. Azael didn’t questions things the way Pen tries not to, in fear
that if she voices out loud her life may very well depend on it.,

Az is confident and sure of his place and rightfulness
of belonging in Hell. Pen wasn’t always so sure, she didn’t feel that she
belonged in Heaven with the righteousness in authority in distinguishing right
from wrong, from good and evil, it didn’t settle with Pen, she questioned the
rules and laws of what Heaven defined bad and evil. She doesn’t see things in
black and white, as Heaven, as Hell, as Azael did. Nothing is black and white,
neither one thing good, nor evil. There’s grey, Pen saw the grey. Heaven didn’t
like grey. She didn’t belong there. So when Azael chose to fall, so did Pen, in
fear of losing the one thing she was sure of. She had Azael, she couldn’t lose
him.

In her mission of
Michael, with his questions, his views that The Michael would never, in a
million years questioned the rules, slowly the façade Pen kept around her
starts breaking. She believe she’s beyond help, she has no heart, she doesn’t
need to breathe, though she likes to pretend she can, after all her wings are
black after she fell, her blood runs black and the ice of hell runs through her
veins.

There is nothing
good within her.

But Michael…Michael
believes she has goodness inside her, because just as she, he questions, he sees
the grey areas, and he sees the conceptions Heaven likes to proceed, but can be
as viscous than the demons themselves, after all, the demons don’t pretend to
be something they’re not.

With Michael’s
help she forget whom she’s supposed to be, she forgets whom she’s not, and
finds herself once again, and he ignites something in her that was long
forgotten, something that she’s not supposed to feel, so she can’t feel.

Yet she does.

Pen, was a
thoroughly thought out character that though, unsure of herself, is so sure of
the beauty the world holds, and the power of words and literature, in all
forms, and to me, it’s the thing that makes Pen, not an angel, or a demon, but
a person. Her passion, and her torn loyalty, her relationship with Azael.

I loved their
interactions with each other, and Azael’s sharp wit. .

I honestly adored Ignite, and it was a pleasure to get sucked into this world where the
characters have meaning, have weight on their shoulders and eventually hold
themselves up. Pen wasn’t afraid to be weak, she was just afraid to be alone.

There’s good in
balance, but evil hangs there too.

Beyond recommended
this, for the thoughtfulness and questions it invokes.